17 comments:

Though such incidents keep occurring, this nation is loathe to discuss the real ways that race still matters in day-to-day life. Instead, each incident is treated as a separate and unique occurrence. The notion that these are systematic of a larger, unaddressed, pathology never gets much traction.

I prayed the same thing while knowing that not only was he brown (one of us), but that nothing had prompted them to shoot those boys that way. And I hate to put it like this but... At least Bloomberg has come out immediately stating that to him it looks excessive. Compared to Giuliani, that's a step in the right direction.

I'm assuming you saw the taser incident at UCLA? There the UCLA cops were even threatening white students with tasing for attempting to follow up on the abuse of that Arab kid. Is it a question of whom we are putting in badges and gun belts? Should there be more psychological testing? Are we changing the culture via the Iraq war such that we are not only losing civil liberties (and our lives) as a matter of law but as a matter of fact? I'm not saying that in the Black community these things had been unheard of previously, but asking is it becoming more prevalent?

I prayed the same thing while knowing that not only was he brown (one of us), but that nothing had prompted them to shoot those boys that way. And I hate to put it like this but... At least Bloomberg has come out immediately stating that to him it looks excessive. Compared to Giuliani, that's a step in the right direction.

I'm assuming you saw the taser incident at UCLA? There the UCLA cops were even threatening white students with tasing for attempting to follow up on the abuse of that Arab kid. Is it a question of whom we are putting in badges and gun belts? Should there be more psychological testing? Are we changing the culture via the Iraq war such that we are not only losing civil liberties (and our lives) as a matter of law but as a matter of fact? I'm not saying that in the Black community these things had been unheard of previously, but asking is it becoming more prevalent?

In 1964, I was living in San Francisco in a mixed race neighborhood. One day I was walking home from the store and saw a police car pull over and the officers shove the 12 year old black boy who lived upstairs from me in the back and start yelling at him. When I ran over to the car and demanded to know what was going on, they explained that a bike had been stolen. I think I foamed at the mouth -- that they would treat anyone like that over a bike! And a 12 year old (small for his age, wearing glasses, as I remember it) at that! He was such an honest young boy, which I knew from experience. A good boy, well behaved, polite, doing well in school.That was the day that this white woman discovered a little bit of what it is like to be black. I hate it that things like this happen because of the color of a person't skin. And, in 42 years it still hasn't stopped.

Note how in America today everyone is supposed to dress casual and act ghetto/thug/hip-hop; this makes it easier for the police to target folks who are less apt to have any real power in society.

Anyway, as a former NAACP legal redress chair and as an attorney with a fair amount of Civil Rights experience (stateside and in private practice) I believe it still remains to be seen if these gentlemen are crime victims pursuant to New York Statute.

I discuss that issue, and my successful arguments for crime victim status at the hands of Ohio police in my post on this matter, as I also wonder why the survivors were apparently handcuffed to their respective hospital beds without a warrant:

It was 1994. I was 17 and driving home from work. I lived off the rezervation in a quiet bedroom community outside of a milltown. I was stopped by the RCMP. Pulled out by my hair. Held at gunpoint till they searched my car. I never got a reason.

This story makes me sad that things still havent gotten better. not really.

The sad thing about it is that today some of my fellow black and puerto rican co-workers were working while a cop was writing up a ticket for the delivery truck parked in front of our facilities. The silence that the majority of us had was never discussed later, but it is a sign of some sort of self editing that is happening right here in New York City.

Things are pretty grim all over. Last week in Atlanta the cops gunned down a 92 year old lady in her home. They got a bogus tip about a drug sale, busted down the door, the old lady, frightened out of her mind, had a pistol and fired--hitting 3 of them but not killing them--and the cops opened fire on her. She was black and living in a high crime neighborhood. Would the cops have busted in if she was rich, and white? Ha. Ain't the drug war great?

This is absolutely tragic. I live in Brooklyn now, but was in Louisville a few years ago when a similar incident happened (an older, unarmed man shot 40 or 50 times in the back). It broke my heart then, and it does now.

We need a MUCH more stringent psychological exam in the police force. Most of the cops I have been acquainted with fall into two categories--people who genuinely care about the welfare of their town/city and the people within, and try to enforce laws accordingly; and people who like to carry a gun and feel like a big shot. Many in the latter group also carry some misconceptions of certain racial/ethnic groups. Surely it can't be that hard for the police academy to spot these people and weed them out.

I live right outside of NYC, and I knew as soon as I heard the news that the guys weren't white, because, well...when was the last time cops unloaded their guns on a white guy?

My 16 year old daughter deals with this daily. She's half Mexican, and her group of friends are all Latino and Black (I don't think she has even one white friend that she spends time with regularly). They can't go anywhere as a group without cops watching them, even stopping them just for the hell of it.

They're watched going into stores, hanging out on the street (cause there are so many free places for kids to hangout that would get them off the street, you know), and forget it if they try to go to an underage club to dance or something.

I'm always a little bit afraid when she goes out for the evening, and I don't relax until she's home safely once more.

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